ANTM Recap: Tyra Is On The Hunt For Quirk
Cycle 15 of America’s Next Top Model made its triumphant and high-fashion debut Wednesday night with a season premiere that featured Cynthia Rowley, accusations of racism, tears, and no shortage of Tyra-isms.
The premise of the episode was to introduce you to this year’s contestants, so what could have taken about 20 minutes took a solid 60 minutes of television time. First the ladies were shuttled off to Palm Springs on a bus — this is important — where judging would begin. The catch with the bus, of course, is that the contestants were seated next to other contestants with a similar look — and only one of each pair would make it through the first cut. (And lest you worry about such superficial similarities as “Black” or “White,” Tyra went with much more specific groupings like “Indie” and “Bone Structure.”)
But first! The ladies arrived at the house and no sooner had the great room grab begun than one contestant was accused of being racist. Emily, after securing a bed, wrote in her diary, “Ew. Almost had to room with a black girl.” Naturally, one of the other contestants saw this and confronted her. Emily claimed she was misunderstood: It wasn’t that she was upset about potentially rooming with a black girl, it was that this particular black girl was not very nice. Typically, when we want to describe someone as not very nice, we describe them as not very nice. Not black. But, spoiler alert!, Emily’s life on ANTM was short-lived and we’re anxiously awaiting her tell-all interview in which she accuses Tyra of kicking her off because she was racist.
So, no, Emily does not make it through the one-on-one cut. Neither does Vanessa, the Pageant Girl, who thinks she’s the most beautiful of the bunch. She later explains the cut by calling her features “too refined.” After the great culling of the herd, the girls are then re-paired, once again, with similar looking contestants. This time, Cynthia Rowley is on hand to observe a photoshoot in which each pair is shot together, and the goal is to STAND OUT.
This is a largely awkward endeavor, but does serve to point out a few frontrunners.
Rhianna, who Tyra would like to re-name Willow: Rihanna is one of the “Indie” girls. This is because she wears strange Blossom-esque hats and likes to be different. She’s also compellingly beautiful — particularly in photographs, has lips reminiscent of Lindsey Wixson’s, and manages to successfully model as a willow tree, a tumbleweed, and a rolling tumbleweed, in that order. Rhianna also managed to produce our favorite Tyra-ism of the night. “Some people would say [about Rhianna], ‘Has she lost her mind?!’ I’d say, ‘She lost her mind all the way into rightness!’”
Jane: Jane is a frontrunner because she actually looks like a model. She was categorized as having “Bone Structure.” She also goes to Princeton and is rich. One gets the sense we are supposed to judge her on this.
Anamaria: She’s from Queens, which means she’ll be confrontational and make for good TV. She also has a really cool gap between her teeth, which means she’s right on trend!
Because ANTM is a reality show, they work hard — right off the bat! — to create “characters.” And of the two most obvious characters created last night, only one made the cut.
Jordan: We thought Jordan would stick around longer. She was so wonderfully judgemental, announcing right off the bat that she hates ignorant people, dumb people, materialism, and consumerism! She also hates going out to bars, or something, and seemed like she was being set up to be the season’s perfect enemy. Alas, she didn’t make the final cut and, much to both our and Tyra’s surprise, she cried about it.
Kendal: Kendal, on the other hand, made it through, but not before making one of the strangest announcements ever heard on ANTM. During her one-on-one with the judges, she explained her virginity by declaring, “I don’t like semen.” Specifically, she does not like semen on her hands, or anywhere near her. Miss Jay was not having any of this, and dubbed her a “germophobe” instead.
Tyra has lofty goals for the winner of this cycle. She told Fashionista:
“My dream is for her to be a real high fashion girl. I want [her to be in] French Vogue and Italian Vogue and even Japanese Elle. I want her to be on the runway for Prada and YSL and Dolce and Gaultier and Balenciaga and McQueen.”
This would have been a silly quote if Tyra hadn’t been so upfront about the commercialness of past seasons.
“I’m attracted to the odd face, but there are certain limitations with having a show that was a little more commercial. Now it’s high fashion and I was allowed to have the ears that really stuck out and the girls that have more quirk that I’m personally attracted to.”
And with that, may the most quirk win.
Who was your favorite? Tell us in the comments!
Related:
ANTM’s Vogue Italia Options [Fashion Copious]
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